Vistar Media published new research on May 19, 2026, showing that three-dimensional motion creative in digital out-of-home advertising is 67% more effective at building top-of-mind brand awareness than formats that carry no motion at all. The findings come from a study called "Science in Motion," produced in partnership with Omnicom Media and JCDecaux, and they add a layer of empirical detail to a question that has shaped creative debate in the DOOH sector for years: does motion on screen actually move the needle?

The answer, at least within the scope of this study, is yes - and the gap between formats is larger than many practitioners may have assumed.

What the study measured

The research was conducted between November 2025 and January 2026, drawing on responses from 7,513 people across multiple age groups in the Netherlands. According to Vistar Media, the methodology tested four distinct creative types head-to-head: 3D assets, full-motion video, limited-motion animations, and static images. Each was assessed against a control group, and the results were evaluated across a range of standard brand metrics - aided ad recall, spontaneous recall, unaided awareness, and top-of-mind awareness (TOMA).

The study design is worth examining in some detail, because it differs from standard ad testing. Participants watched footage of a person walking through an outdoor environment where a DOOH screen was visible. Critically, they were not asked to focus on the ad and were not cognitively primed to look for it. The exposure was incidental - replicating, as closely as a controlled study can, the conditions under which most people actually encounter out-of-home advertising. Different participant groups saw one of the four creative formats, applied across a range of brands from multiple industries. That deliberate breadth was intended to make the findings broadly applicable rather than category-specific.

According to Annelijne Brouwer, Data & Insights Manager at Vistar Media: "Among marketers, and perhaps even as consumers, it's long been inherently agreed upon that including motion in advertising makes it more engaging. In DOOH, that agreement is perhaps stronger than any other channel, but there is surprisingly little data to actually back up the assumption. That's why the Science in Motion research is so exciting; it doesn't just prove it correct, it shows the impact is potentially even greater than we thought."

That framing - that the data validates something felt but unquantified - is probably the most useful starting point for understanding why this study matters.

The screen does the heavy lifting

The most immediate finding, and perhaps the most counterintuitive for brands accustomed to treating static DOOH as a compromise format, is that static creative delivered a 38% uplift in aided ad recall relative to the control group. Full-motion creative achieved a 41% uplift on the same metric. The gap between static and full motion on aided recall is narrow: just 3 percentage points.

According to Vistar Media, this reflects the inherent power of the medium itself - the high-quality screen, the public location, the scale of the display. The environment does the heavy lifting regardless of what creative format fills it. Brands that have been treating static assets as a lesser version of their campaign because regulations or budgets prevent motion have, according to this data, been worrying unnecessarily. Static DOOH is an effective medium for reach and recognition regardless.

Where that picture changes is when the measure shifts from basic recall to deeper brand anchoring.

3D: the strategic differentiator

On top-of-mind awareness, the format hierarchy becomes sharper and the numbers more consequential. 3D creative achieved a 10% TOMA uplift against the control group. Full-motion and subtle motion both achieved 8% TOMA uplifts. Static was the baseline. The 10% figure for 3D is what produces the headline 67% effectiveness advantage over no-motion formats - it is not that 3D is 67 percentage points better in absolute terms, but that its relative lift on TOMA is 67% larger than the zero-motion baseline.

What makes 3D distinctive, according to the report, is the sense of depth and physical presence it creates on screen. A flat image, even in motion, occupies the plane of the display. A 3D asset appears to extend toward or away from the viewer, creating spatial cues that the visual processing system responds to differently. According to Vistar Media, 3D "doesn't just catch the eye; it embeds the brand into the viewer's memory far more effectively than a flat, static image."

On aided ad recall specifically, 3D also outperformed every other format: a 44% uplift against the control group, compared to 41% for full motion and 38% for static. That means 3D is simultaneously the strongest format for immediate recognition and for top-of-mind staying power.

The practical recommendation from Vistar Media is to hold a mix of both static and 3D creative as a baseline for DOOHbest practice.

Full motion and subtle motion: where the data gets interesting

Full-motion creative is the strongest format for spontaneous recall. According to the report, it produced an 18% uplift in spontaneous recall against the control group - the highest of any format on that particular metric. For campaigns where the primary objective is fast, high-speed recognition rather than deep brand embedding, full-motion video is the most efficient tool.

But the finding that generated the most practical interest in the report is what happened when subtle motion - a spinning product, an animating logo, a slow pan - was tested against full-motion video. On top-of-mind awareness, both produced an 8% uplift against the control group. The two formats performed identically on the metric that matters most for long-term brand building.

That equivalence is significant for planning. A full-motion production involves considerably more budget, lead time, and in some markets, regulatory approval than a simple animation applied to an otherwise static asset. If both deliver the same TOMA outcome, the calculus around production investment shifts. According to Vistar Media, the intensity of the animation is often less important than the mere presence of motion, and a spinning logo can be as effective at anchoring a brand as a fast-paced full-screen video.

The caveat is that subtle motion underperforms full motion on spontaneous and aided recall, which matters for campaigns prioritising short-term awareness over sustained brand positioning. Format choice, the report argues, must follow primary campaign objective.

A format-to-KPI mapping

The report presents findings as a practical framework, mapping each creative format to the campaign objective it serves best.

Static functions as the recall baseline. The 38% aided ad recall uplift proves that location and screen quality drive impact even without animation.

Subtle motion is described as efficient awareness - minimal movement sufficient to drive peak brand awareness, achieving 8% TOMA uplift and often matching full video on that measure.

Full motion is the attention-grabbing format. It achieves the highest spontaneous recall at 18% uplift and performs at 8% TOMA - strong across the board, but particularly suited to high-speed recognition objectives.

3D motion is the brand powerhouse. A 44% uplift in aided ad recall and a 10% TOMA uplift make it the absolute top performer when the campaign goal is deep brand embedding and long-term awareness.

According to Marit van Zon, Insight & Effectiveness Consultant at Omnicom Media: "This research provides clear evidence of how different creative formats - from static to 3D - drive impact in DOOH. More importantly, it gives strategists a practical framework to make data-driven decisions, enabling them to select the right format based on campaign objectives, audience, and context - ensuring each DOOH campaign delivers optimal impact."

That framing - format as a strategic variable rather than a production default - represents a meaningful shift in how creative briefing for DOOH might be structured.

Generational patterns in the data

The age breakdown in the report is more nuanced than the headline numbers suggest. The 18-34 demographic showed the highest overall uplift scores across all dynamic formats, with a particular response to full-motion creative. That result is consistent with expectations about that age group's relationship with video content across digital environments.

What the report highlights as the more notable finding is what happens at the other end of the age range. For both the 35-49 and 50-65 age groups, 3D creative recorded the strongest effects of any format tested. For the 50-65 group specifically, the report describes 3D as "by far the most effective format" for brand awareness - covering both top-of-mind and spontaneous recall measures. According to Vistar Media, 3D creative for that demographic delivers nearly double the impact of other formats.

The mechanism the report points to is the immersive nature of 3D - the depth and physical presence cues that appear to carry a unique resonance for older consumers. This is a counterintuitive result. The assumption embedded in many creative briefs would place younger audiences, who have grown up with 3D gaming environments and volumetric visual culture, as the primary beneficiaries of dimensional creative. The data inverts that expectation, at least on the brand awareness metrics measured here.

For advertisers in categories that skew toward older audiences - financial services, healthcare, insurance, automotive, travel - this finding is particularly relevant. It provides a data basis for 3D investment that has historically been harder to make in creative budgets targeting those demographics.

A real-world case: La Roche-Posay

The report includes one named brand example. Vistar Media's creative studio developed a 3D motion execution for La Roche-Posay, running it alongside static assets produced by the brand itself. The 3D creative was measured across brand awareness, ad recall, message comprehension, and appeal.

According to the report, the 3D execution outperformed static across every one of those metrics. The reason cited by respondents was clarity: the 3D unit made it noticeably clearer what the product actually was, and made the product look more appealing. The combination of functional clarity - what the product is - and emotional pull - how the product feels - is described as one of the most distinctive things 3D enables. It makes product-led creative feel emotionally resonant rather than purely transactional.

That is a finding with broad applicability across product categories where physical form matters to the purchase decision: skincare, food and beverage, consumer electronics, automotive, and homeware.

Regulatory and production constraints

The research acknowledges that its findings cannot always be acted upon directly. According to Martine Hammink, VP of Creative Studio & Creative Solutions at Vistar Media: "Sometimes motion is not permitted due to local regulations, and at other times there is a lack of time or budget for complex animations."

The regulatory constraint is real and market-specific. Motion restrictions in digital out-of-home vary across jurisdictions. Local governments in various markets restrict animated or full-motion content on screens near highways and traffic zones on road safety grounds - the report explicitly notes that regulations typically allow only static creative on billboards adjacent to highways. In some European cities, regulators have moved to restrict or eliminate commercial digital advertising in public spaces. The Science in Motion findings arrive in an environment where the formats they recommend are not universally available.

The report's response to this constraint is to provide a hierarchy rather than a single prescription. Knowing precisely how much performance is left on the table at each format tier - from static through subtle motion, full motion, and 3D - allows planners to make rational decisions about where to invest creative production budget when some formats are unavailable. A campaign that cannot run 3D due to location restrictions can still capture a meaningful share of the motion premium through a simple animation. That is more useful planning guidance than a blanket recommendation for the top format.

The full Science in Motion report is available at vistarmedia.com/science-in-motion-research.

Context within the DOOH sector

Vistar Media's position in the out-of-home technology ecosystem gives the research commercial context worth noting. The company, acquired by T-Mobile in January 2025 for $600 million, operates a demand-side platform (DSP), a supply-side platform (SSP), an ad server, and a content management system across more than 35 global markets, headquartered in New York. T-Mobile completed the acquisition on February 3, 2025, integrating Vistar into what it calls T-Mobile Advertising Solutions alongside the Blis acquisition that followed one month later.

The JCDecaux partnership that co-produced this research is one of the more significant collaborations in the sector. JCDecaux operates advertising panels in over 80 countries, reaching a daily audience of 850 million people across transit, street furniture, and airport formats. The company's programmatic advertising revenues grew by 45.6% to 145.9 million euros in 2024, as covered by PPC Land. That growth trajectory provides the commercial backdrop against which the Science in Motion findings will be applied.

The broader market context is one of expansion. PPC Land's coverage of US out-of-home ad spend noted that DOOH was the fastest-growing segment in the OOH category, with 14.5% growth projected for 2026, while total US OOH spend is forecast to reach $4 billion. The effectiveness research question has been building alongside that growth. A September 2025 study covered by PPC Land found that combining DOOH with television produced up to 90% assisted advertising recall in test conditions, with motion graphics consistently outperforming static imagery in outdoor placements. The Vistar study adds a more granular breakdown of what happens within the DOOH creative spectrum itself.

Why this matters for the marketing community

The question the research addresses - how much does creative format affect DOOH performance, and precisely which formats serve which objectives? - has been difficult to answer with field data rather than assumption. Much of the creative guidance circulating in the programmatic DOOH market has been based on platform conventions inherited from online video or on qualitative assessments from practitioners. A study of 7,513 respondents, conducted with incidental exposure methodology across a two-month field period in partnership with a major media holding group and one of the world's largest outdoor media owners, provides a more grounded basis for creative strategy.

The most actionable insight may be the subtle motion finding. The gap between no motion and some motion is substantial on TOMA. The gap between a simple animation and a full production on that same metric is effectively zero. That asymmetry suggests the first unit of motion investment in a DOOH campaign delivers disproportionate returns, and that production budget above a basic animation threshold buys spontaneous recall benefits but not additional brand embedding.

The age segmentation data matters equally for planners. The strength of 3D among the 35-49 and 50-65 demographics challenges assumptions frequently embedded in creative briefs that associate dimensional or immersive creative with younger audiences.

PPC Land's earlier analysis of AI and OOH creative noted that digital out-of-home represents 41% of the $52 billion OOH market in 2025, and is forecast to reach $31.4 billion by 2030. As the channel grows and programmatic buying infrastructure matures - Vistar itself expanded into Brazil in August 2025 and Place Exchange launched programmatic guaranteed within Google DV360 in December 2025 - the creative effectiveness dimension of the market becomes more consequential. Infrastructure that enables precise targeting and measurement at scale raises the stakes for creative quality, because the cost of underperforming creative becomes more precisely visible.

The Science in Motion findings arrive at a moment when the industry has the infrastructure to act on them. Programmatic systems that allow real-time creative swaps and dynamic content delivery mean the creative hierarchy the study describes - 3D at the top, limited motion and full motion in the middle, static as a reliable baseline - can now be deployed as an optimization framework within a single campaign rather than locked in at the planning stage.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Vistar Media, in partnership with Omnicom Media and JCDecaux, conducted and published the Science in Motion research. Vistar Media is part of T-Mobile Advertising Solutions, headquartered in New York and operating in over 35 global markets.

What: A two-month incidental-exposure field study of 7,513 respondents in the Netherlands, testing four creative formats - 3D, full-motion, limited-motion, and static - across digital out-of-home screens for a range of real-world brands. Key findings: 3D creative holds a 67% advantage over no-motion formats on top-of-mind awareness, delivering a 10% TOMA uplift and a 44% aided ad recall uplift; full motion leads on spontaneous recall at 18% uplift; subtle motion matches full motion on TOMA at 8% uplift; static DOOH delivers a 38% aided recall uplift regardless of format; and 3D is the most effective format for both the 35-49 and 50-65 age groups.

When: Fieldwork ran from November 2025 through January 2026. The report was published on May 19, 2026, from Amsterdam.

Where: The study was conducted in the Netherlands. Its findings apply to digital out-of-home advertising environments globally. Vistar Media operates across more than 35 markets; JCDecaux operates in over 80 countries.

Why: The study aimed to provide brands, agencies, and creative teams with empirical data on how creative format choices affect campaign performance in DOOH - a channel that has grown rapidly but has lacked granular creative effectiveness benchmarks. The findings give planners a format-to-KPI mapping framework applicable across varying budget levels, regulatory environments, and audience demographics.

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